Student Financials Module Now in Production

Last Major Platform Launched in Project Orion

July 27, 2009

The transition to the PeopleSoft Campus Solutions data management platform reached a major milestone recently with the go-live of the student financials module.

Dubbed Project Orion at UT Dallas, the transition to PeopleSoft involves the creation of a Web-based information portal that could one day manage virtually every aspect of a student’s academic career, from registering for classes to paying fees, to applying for graduation.

Student financials encompasses everything from tuition calculations and fee assessments to making regular tuition payments to setting up payment plans.

The student financials module kicked off production by posting fall tuition payments in the PeopleSoft environment. Prior to launch, precautionary steps were taken to insure that student payment services were not interrupted, according to Orion financials functional team lead Cheryl Friesenhahn, who also is director of financial services at the University.

“The new gateway will still be pointed to the old Student Information System until after the third installment payment deadline. The payment gateway officially went live in PeopleSoft July 23,” she added. “At that point, all processing was moved to the PeopleSoft system. The extra steps allowed us to pinpoint any potential issues and troubleshoot operational problems.”

According to Friesenhahn, staggering the rollout also provided an opportunity for staff and faculty users of the system to participate in training sessions.

In addition to Friesenhahn, the Orion student financials team includes Sabrina Shi, Paul Leung, Chris Yount and Dorian Carter.

Other Orion modules that have previously launched and are now operational include student records, financial aid and enrollment.

About Orion

Orion is a Web-based information portal that will one day manage virtually every aspect of a student’s academic career, from registering for classes to paying parking fines, to applying for graduation. Orion operates on the PeopleSoft Campus Solutions platform, a comprehensive suite of software that gives users real-time information. When completed, Orion will serve nearly every consumer of University data, including students, faculty and staff.